Boy's journey tugs at your heart

Before sitting down to write my column today, I checked my email and my Facebook account.

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poconorecord.com

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Posted Feb. 1, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Posted Feb. 1, 2013 at 12:01 AM

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Before sitting down to write my column today, I checked my email and my Facebook account.

I saw this status, shared by one of my friends, and I wanted to share it with you all, with permission, by the author, Denise Metzgar.

It made me cry, so grab your tissues, and smile, as I did, knowing how many incredibly good people are out there, right in our own backyard.

Here it is just as I read it:

This is just so beautifully written by my friend, Denise Metzgar, whose husband is Joey's Scouts leader, that I had to share it with you.

I'm not sure how many of you know how much my husband Steve loves to hike "» and he doesn't get to do it nearly as often as he would like "»

A couple years ago, Steve started a hiking program with his beloved Cub Scouts. After they hiked 10 miles, he would present them with a hiking stick that he made himself. I can't tell you how many sticks that man has brought home "»!

I send him for milk, and he comes home with a truck load of saplings that someone was going to throw away"»:) What started out as an annoying quirk of his, has once again, become one of the things I love about him the most.

He never knows who is going to get what stick, until he gets into his workshop, and starts going through his pile.

A lot of the sticks he has hand-selected from different places, and as he looks at each one, then starts to carve it, the stick starts to "reveal itself to him" in such a way.

After he finishes a bunch, he brings them to me, and tells me which stick is going to which lucky little guy.

One of my favorite ones was a sassafras stick. It's meaning for that little boy was so touching "»I couldn't believe that Steve got so much out of that stick.

Well, tonight at his pack meeting at Scouts, he brought out yet another stick with a lot of meaning behind it, too.

He started across the stage, and called up a special little guy by the name of Joey Fantozzi.

Little Joey started in our Cub Scout pack back in September. I don't think he had been signed up two weeks when his parents received the news that he had leukemia, and then spent the next month in the hospital undergoing tests and treatments.

He's been back home, getting himself back into the groove, and has even been feeling well enough to come back to Scouts.

Steve presented Joey with a hiking stick tonight "» Joey was so cute. "But Mr. Steve, I haven't been hiking!"

Steve told him that he's hiked a lot farther than a lot of us will ever go, and down trails that we as parents never want our children to go on "» And so for that, he's very much deserving of that hiking stick. I don't think there was a dry eye in the place. His dad just lost it. He told Steve later, that Joey just LOVES hiking sticks, and looks for them all the time.

I don't know if Steve got to tell Joey's dad, but the stick came from an old tree that was downed in last year's storms up where Steve works and from where his Dad retired from.

This place has been in the business of helping people get well for over 100 years. What better stick for Joey to have!

Enjoy it Joey, and may you live and prosper for 100 years, just like that tree did on that property in Swiftwater.